Tag Archives: Prospect Rankings

After talking about the top running backs and linebackers last week, I want to shift my focus towards the perimeter players. In this episode of positional rankings, we start with the offensive side of the ball – the wide receivers to be more exact. This group of pass-catchers is very diverse and offers a multitude of different bodies, which will lead to major variations in team’s rankings, depending on what they are looking for.

To be honest, I only see one guy in this draft class, who I think could develop into an elite WR1. However, there are a bunch of excellent second and third options available. I believe you can steal some eventual starters on day three. In the end, there might be 15 or 16 receivers, who crack my top 100 draft board.

Once again, my rankings are purely based on what I’ve seen on tape and in pre-draft events. However, with this positional group, there was one name with just too many red flags to judge him based on his pure talent and you will find his name at the very end.

Continuing my series on the top ten prospects at each position, I want to take a look at this year’s class of linebackers. To make this clear – I differentiate between interior defensive linemen, edge rushers and off-the-ball linebackers. So this list won’t include guys like Arden Key or Harold Landry, who most would call 3-4 outside linebacker, because they primarily will still play on the line, despite maybe not putting their hand in the dirt a lot. So these upcoming prospects can be anywhere from true 4-3 middle linebackers to outside guys in a scheme with three down-linemen, if I think they will have a large role off the ball as well.

This linebacker class has a quadruple of headliners and then a bunch of guys, who I have rated very closely together. Of course, these lists deviate strongly depending from team to team, depending on their defensive scheme and what their coaches value. The trend that is clear with these guys though, is the fact, that the NFL is looking for more and more athletic guys at the position.

Over the next six weeks, I will break down my top ten (plus) prospects at each position heading into the draft in late April. These rankings are solely based on what I’ve seen on tape and in pre-draft events. Neither do I have exclusive medical reports of these players, nor did I have the chance to sit down with each and everyone of them. Today I’m starting with the running backs.

Much like last year, this RB class has a lot of talent at the top and depth throughout the top 20 or so. While there is a clear number one guy for me, from two until fifteen, there will be a multitude of opinions and my rankings may vary heavily from the mainstream media, once we get past the top spots. Here it is: